Growing up as a teenybopper in the 1970's had such a deep impact on me musically. When my dad gave me a cassette recorder, it was the beginning to an unending love for music of the 1960's to 1980's. As a result of its strong influence, I learnt how to play the guitar and moved on to other instruments and many other musical experiences with various bands, choirs and musicals.

You should be glad you are not my neighbour for I had spent the greater part of this evening singing away to the hits by bands such as:

The Patridge Family - I think I love you, I'll Meet You Halfway, Twenty-four hours a day The Osmonds - One Bad Apple, Love me for a reason The Defranco Family - Abacadabra Three Dog Night - Joy to the World (Jeremiah was a bull-frog) Credence Clearwater Revival - Have you ever seen the rain?, Proud Mary Cher - Gypsy, Tramps and Thieves and Half Breed Albert Hammond- It Never Rains in California Donny Osmond - The Twelfth of Never Carpenters - Close to you, We've Only Just begun,, Please Mr Postman Christie - Yellow River The Archies - Sugar Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died, Billy, don't be a hero Joan Baez - The Night they drove Old Dixie and many other old favourites.

And I feel so young again! Thank God for YouTube!!

Amazingly, I could remember most of the lyrics effortlessly!!! My husband sat beside me quite unperturbed that I had gone bonkers over the music that I loved over forty years ago!

The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s. They enjoyed considerable popularity in many countries, although they did not achieve major US chart success until 1966.

Along with The Rolling Stones and The Searchers, they are one of the few British pop groups of the early 1960s that have never officially broken up and that continue to record and perform. The Hollies were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2010.

The Hollies were known for their bright vocal harmonies. Though initially known for its cover versions, the band moved towards written-to-order songs provided to them by such writers as Graham Gouldman. Soon after, the group's in-house songwriting trio of Clarke, Hicks and Nash began providing hits.CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

One of their earliest songs I loved is Sorry Suzanne - a 1969 single by The Hollies that was co-written by Geoff Stephens and Tony Macaulay. It was the group's first song to feature Terry Sylvester in the place of Graham Nash. "Sorry Suzanne" was released with the B-side "Not That Way at All" on the Parlophone label. The song reached #3 on the UK singles chart in March 1969 and reached #1 in Switzerland on April 22, 1969.

In 1968, The Hollies also recorded Bob Dylan's Blowing in the Wind - a protest song with many rhetorical questions about peace, war and freedom. CLICK HERE FOR THE MUSIC VIDEO.Believe me - you will enjoy this delightfully jazzy version - pretty ahead of its time considering it was recorded in 1969!

Of course, one of my firm favourites would be the timelessHe Ain't Heavy, He's my Brother written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell. Originally recorded by Kelly Gordon in 1969, the song became a worldwide hit for The Hollies later that year and again for Neil Diamond in 1970.

Did you know that The Hollies' recording of this song featured Elton John on piano? It was released in the UK on 1 September 1969 and on 1 December 1969 in the US. "He Ain't Heavy" reached #3 in the UK and #7 in the US. The song, paired with "Carrie Anne", was re-released in late 1988 in the UK following its use in a television advertisement for Miller Lite beer. It reached the #1 spot in the UK chart for two weeks in September 1988. Click here for more.

The one hit that impacted the way I played my guitar was Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress written by Allan Clarke, Roger Cook, and Roger Greenaway. The song is different from their usual style as it does not have the usual three-part vocal harmonies and features lead guitar and lead vocal work by Allan Clarke.I practised so meticulously that I could play the song with the exact rhythmic beat as played by Allan Clarke.

The Air that I Breathe - a ballad written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood (1972)is another favourite of mine. It was a major hit for The Hollies in early 1974, reaching No. 2 in the UK - their last major hit single, apart from a reissue of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" in 1988. In the summer of 1974, the song reached #6 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart [2]. In Canada. the song peaked at #5 on the RPM Magazine charts. "The Air That I Breathe" was engineered by Alan Parsons.

The music of the 1970's can never be forgotten. Their indelible mark in our hearts, rhythm lasts beyond the strains of their music.

And all that we need is for their music to be played on...beyond the present generation!

We were champions in foot drill and runners up for first aid at the National level. The judges for the first aid were Officers from the Royal Medical Corps (British) based at Minden Barracks in Penang. For foot drill the judges were from the Royal Malaysian Police. Standing from left to right: Me ( Squad Leader), Chan Kok Nam (whereabouts currently unknown), Ms Poon ( currently Puan Haslinda), Sin Hong Sum (now a New Zealander), Rev Bro. Damian (passed away), our beloved Principal of Saint Anthony's. Chow Kim Yu (now British) and Zulkifli Hj Zakaria. The gentlemen seated in front were from the 503 Battalion based in Teluk Intan, they trained us in foot drill. Thank you wherever you are.

AMMAN, Jordan (LAT) -- A defiant Syrian President Bashar Assad offered no new concessions Sunday from his embattled administration, instead assailing a "foreign conspiracy" against Syria and rejecting any government role in recent "monstrous massacres" across the nation.

"The truth is that even monsters do not do what we saw, especially in the Houla massacre," Assad said, referring to the house-to-house executions last month of more than 100 people, mostly women and children, in the central township of Houla. The killings in Houla drew international repudiation of Syria. United Nations officials said evidence pointed to pro-government death squads as the killers. But authorities in Syria blamed the massacre on foreign-backed "terrorists" seeking to frame Syrian security services and undermine a U.N. peace plan.

"The crisis is not internal," Assad declared, repeating his government's long-term assertion that foreign powers are stoking the uprising aimed at ending his rule. "Rather, it is a foreign war with internal tools, and everybody is responsible for defending the homeland." More...

Whatever happened to the so called "Arab spring?" Via RaymondIbrahim.com, who documents and describes a recent video of a Muslim apostate -- a convert to Christianity in Tunisia, where the so-called "Arab spring" began -- who had his head hacked off for refusing to return to Islam, to the usual cries of "Allahu Akbar!" The video, for those interested in viewing it, can be seen by clicking on my website link above:

Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on "Egypt Today" airing a video of Muslims slicing a young man's head off for the crime of apostasy, in this case, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it. The video—be warned, it is immensely graphic—is on the left (the actual execution appears from minute 1:13-4:00). For those who prefer not to view it, a summary follows:

A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or "narrator," chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: "Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate"; "Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists"; "Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims"; "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."

There are moments in our lives when we've all asked it of ourselves, why does this keep happening to me? I know I've had my fair share of breaking point moments. And it took a good while, along with a string of difficult and painful experiences, for me to realize that a better question to ask myself in the midst of those instances when I feel like I'm at the end of my rope is, okay, so what am I supposed to be learning here that I just haven't been getting? Because as unconvincing as it may initially seem, pain is never a punishment. We don't experience trials in life because we're bad people. Nor do we suffer hardships because life is unfair.

I'm going to let you in on something which will probably electrify the skeptic in many of you. Life (actually) is always fair - ALWAYS. Your experiences in life are meant to educate you. And this education can sometimes feel extremely demanding. You have never and will never be guaranteed that your experience in life will be easy, but you may rest assured that it will always be in the best interest of your greatest good.

Pain has a useful purpose. Stress has a constructive function. It is a universal truism that you can never really know what you're made of until you finally resign to face those things which scare you most. If you truly knew the extent of the difficult situations life could throw at you, and that you could not only handle but actually excel well beyond, you would be amazed at your own brilliance. Too often however, we elect to avoid what seems too difficult. We allow our fears to govern our choices and our doubts to determine our actions. These are the blocks we encounter over and over again in life. Every now and then, as we're trucking along, we collide into these obstructions to our spiritual growth (sometimes not even realizing what has hit us). Other times we simply allow ourselves to be turned around when confronted by whatever ominous thing lies before us. We, too regularly, opt to go in circles rather than deal with life's uncertainties. But life's lessons cannot be dodged. One way or another you are going to learn the inexhaustible scope of your strength and power. You will face whatever insights life is trying to show you or you will find yourself stalled on the same redundant track of recurring experiences until you do. Everything moves in cycles. However you have a choice as to whether you go around on a flat plane or whether you rise through the ascent of spirals into the reality of your fullest potential. When you elect to do the former you confine yourself to a two dimensional playing field where you will discover (oftentimes to your great horror) that all that comes up in your life experience is everything you have been trying to avoid.

Stop trying to run from pain. Stop trying to maneuver your way out of taking what appears to be the more forbidding paths in life, those paths where you can just sense that a whole host of your inner bogeymen are waiting to jump out at you. Truthfully you would be better off if you simply adopted a life philosophy of immediately tackling any and everything which makes you doubt yourself and the awesome wonders you are capable of because the fact of the matter is, is that it is impossible to get around confronting these misgivings anyway. So you might as well just go ahead and face them up front because the situations you encounter which reflect your insecurities are only going to re-present themselves in more dramatic and more intimidating forms the longer you put off challenging them.

Being an in recovery procrastinator myself I can completely understand the appeal of kicking those little pebbles of fear down the road to be dealt with another day. The problem with this however is, is that those little pebbles are like debts, they're constantly accruing interest. So the next time you come across that pebble, it won't just be a pebble, it will appear in the form of a rock which you may very well choose to throw down the road once more only to happen upon it later as a boulder. You can go ahead and simply go around this stumbling block in its new form but know that the next time you see your once little pebble, it will then be a little wall. And on and on until you decide to suck it up and own your trepidation.

One of life's many truths is that any erroneous belief you have about yourself or the world around you will eventually take form and "grow legs." It is nothing more than the wrong ideas that you cling to that come to pass as your life's painful experiences. This pain is intended to wake you up from whatever delusion has you rapt. Don't try to walk away from what scares you, don't try to avoid it because it will only end up haunting you. Instead make the conscious decision to consistently do the most courageous thing even in the face of crippling anxiety and self doubt. There is no other way to reach your greatest promise. You have to walk through the fire, so to speak, in order to realize the truth of your inherent power. But if you cop out, if you yield to the panic of uncertainty you will only invite escalating degrees of suffering into your experience. The only way to recognize the absurdity of your fears is to delve in and explore them. You have to be willing to be present with them if you ever want to expose your fears to be the senseless things that they truly are. And until you do, you will remain confined by the very phobias which you have been trying to escape from.

It's an expression I first heard while watching a Wayne Dyer PBS special (whether or not Dr. Dyer is the original author of this expression, I'm not certain, but it really is a good line). He says, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." Fear is the source of all of life's pains and trials. Yet fear is nothing more than a false perception. The only way to move beyond life's difficulties is to move through your fears. So the million dollar question then becomes, well how do you do this? The answer is so simple it might actually seem too easy to be legitimate. But Wayne Dyer is absolutely right. You have the power to change the way you're looking at whatever may have you afraid. You have the power to imagine something different as your reality and in so doing reveal the true nature of your fears to be a complete farce. Because once you truly realize that you are the author of your life's script, what is there really to be afraid of? You and only you have the power to determine your life's experience. You are the one who brought your fear to life, and you are the only one who has the power to take it out.

One of the biggest mistakes people often make however is to try to reason their fears away. This is always a losing battle because you cannot use logic to affect something which is itself illogical. In other words, you cannot reason with fear because you cannot apply reason to an emotion based on a false perception which is, at its core, founded on irrationality. Using this strategy, fear always has the upper hand. Why? Because you can know, logically, what's right and truthful and still not be accepting of the truth. And acceptance is what ultimately shapes your experience. You have to know in your gut what the truth is in order to truly recognize the lie of a false perception. Fear, being an emotion, doesn't turn on reason, it turns on emotions which conflict with it. And the way you excite these conflicting emotions is to stay present with the experience of your fears until you can feel that something is wrong with the perceptions that fuel them. It is this feeling (that something isn't quite right here) that will turn you off to the lies you've been telling yourself. It is this feeling (that something isn't quite right here) that will spur you to reject the delusions which have enthralled you.

So how do you get past life's painful and difficult experiences? The answer is by facing the fearful perceptions which prompt them. By being present with the experience of a fearful perception you will eventually begin to sense its inherent absurdity. And it is this sense which works to shake your faith in your fearful beliefs. Once this faith is shaken, the fear it pertains to will quickly vanish along with all the painful and trying symptomatic incidents in your life which its viral presence was causing.

So let's break this down point by point.

POINT #1 Both pain and difficulty are products of fear.

POINT #2 The only way to move passed life's painful and difficult experiences is to move through your fears.

POINT #3 You move through your fears by facing them. And you face your fears, not by trying to deny them or distract yourself from them, but by being present with them

POINT #4 When you stay present in the mindset of any negative perception which spurs a fear sooner or later the feeling will arise that something about the thoughts you are engaging, is "off." Reason won't be able to adequately explain what exactly is "off," yet the feeling will grow more pronounced the longer you stay present with these thoughts.

POINT #5 In your being present with your fearful thoughts you will eventually come to a place where you will find it impossible to take these thoughts (and the overall perception built from them) seriously.

POINT #6 Once you have lost confidence in the reality you imagine it can no longer be your reality because your life experience will adapt to reflect your new beliefs. Therefore the fear you once felt and believed in, along with all of the other side effects that that fear created, will disappear. Thus pain is overcome and difficulties are surmounted. Written by Evette Gardner Author's Bio Evette Gardner is the author of the self realization / advaita ebook Divine Heritage. She currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Feel free to visit her web site and read more of her articles.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today that he is not sure who paid the RM24,200 for the WWW 15 vehicle registration number he won in a recent tender as controversy mounted over why he made the bid for his official car.

Questioned today by reporters over who made the payment, the MCA deputy president confirmed that the Ministry of Health did not pay for the number.

But when further pressed for answers, Liow (picture) hesitated before saying "not sure, I have to check".

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who was also present at the press conference at the MCA headquarters, attempted to help Liow by saying that the money went "from the left hand to the right hand".

But Dr Chua also did not say who paid the money.

"When I applied for it, I didn't know the cost," Liow said.

He defended himself by saying that "the process (of bidding) was handled by JPJ (Road Transport Department)" and repeated that the bid was placed because of the change in his official car.

He said that "all ministers are eligible for one number, I didn't exercise the option earlier."

He said "numbers to me are not important, what is more important is service to the people."

On May 28, it was announced that the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Sultan Iskandar, beat close to 10,000 bidders to win the tender for the vehicle registration number WWW 1, with the highest bid of RM520,000.

It was also revealed then that Liow had won the bid for the WWW 15 registration number.

Thousands of people had thronged the three Kuala Lumpur RTD branches to place their bids for the WWW prefix.

Prague or Praha as the locals call it is the capital of The Czech Republic. It is the largest city in the Republic and is home to 1.3 million people.Our tour of Prague began in the morning and the local guide for today was Veronica who spoke fluent English.

The day's tour started with a short walk to the tram station not far from our hotel. Each of us were given a ticket and we had to verify the ticket on the tram via a ticketing machine. Since the ticket was only valid for half an hour after verification, it would only be a one way ticket to the Prague Castle.

Riding the tram.It was standing room only but since it was just a short ride, we didn't mind it.

Veronica gave us a short briefing before we entered the castle.

The first square inside the castle.

The changing of the guards happened every hour. We managed to get choice location for a view of the changing of the guards. It was a show that never failed to draw the crowd.

When the state flag is flying, that indicates that The President is within the country.

The glass window from inside.Visitors who wish to enter the main hall of the cathedral must pay an entrance fee, so we opted not to enter that part of it.

Resting our old tired legs while waiting for the rest of the group to regroup.

Veronica briefed us on The Golden lane. The little lane near the Prague Castle is lined with small houses. The gold makers of Prague used to live there in the 15th century and later they house the servants of the palace. Some information of The Golden lane can be found here.

At the end of one street we saw girls being photographed with a statue of a naked boy. Upon arrival I saw a girl being photographed while she was rubbing the appendage of the statue with her hand but I failed to capture her picture as I was struggling to take out my camera from my back pack. By the time I took out my camera, this pretty girl had taken her place.

She didn't seem to dare to do what the previous girl did and just place her hand near to the statues appendage. The frequent rubbing by girls who may feel mystified by the statues appendage or were seeking for some luck must have made the part shiny.

On the way out from the castle compound we saw these street performers playing music. The one in red T isn't a bagpipe blower and all he had was a big tummy to drum on.

On the way down the hill where the castle was located I saw this artist at work. He had only four tubes of acrylic paint with him, red, yellow, blue and white. From these four colours he created all the hues he needed. These are some of his finished work being displayed for sale.

Giovani the painter obliged me and posed for a picture. An artist in the truest sense of the word, unlike this painter (me) who needed to buy all the colours of the rainbow before he could paint a picture.

If you are hungry after visiting the Castle, no worry, there is a place to tuck in.

Below is a wine bistro with a view of Prague.

Views from the bistro. From The Prague Castle we walked to The Senate building via a garden with a pool well stocked with fish.

Immaculate garden

The senate building where announcements used to be made.

The ceiling of the senate building is covered with paintings.

The park benches were used to rest our tired old legs. We had our lunch here too.

On the way out we saw this water spout with a handle to pump the water out. Hidden behind me was a sign telling us not to push the lever up. it will revert to its own position after you have pulled it down.

We were walking towards Charles Bridge when my wife Fatthiyah turned around to see why I was lagging behind. The construction of Charles Bridge spanning across Ultava River in Prague began in 1357 under King Charles IV and was finished only in the early 15th Century. Until 1841, it was the only connection between the old town and Prague Castle. That was how important it was then.

Many portrait painters and artist plied their trade on Charles Bridge. The pretty girl must be a hard act for the painter to put on paper.

Beside the bridge there is a water wheel. The guide told us that the wheel did not serve any purpose now other than being a tourist attraction. The channel that flows through here created this island on the left.

It was at this location on this island that a James bond movie (Casino Royale) was once shot. Malaysia has followed suit and managed to entice Shah Rukh Khan to shoot films to capitalize on his popularity and make famous the city the film was shot on location. For that he was given the coveted Datokship. Do you remember which film and which city Shah Rukh Khan made the film?

Beside painters there were musicians who made their living by performing on Charles Bridge. These trio rendered beautiful songs and many stopped by to listen to them. Patrons are encourage to donate into their donation box perched on a folding chair.

Cruise ships ply the Ultava River and the turning point is immediately after Charles Bridge. The weir placed across the river to raise the water level upstream will not allow the ships to negotiate further upstream.

Veronica alerted us to the wooden protruding right upstream of the pillars of the bridge. She asked us to guess what the structure is for. My answer was to prevent the pillars from being hit by floating debris to which she said that I was quite correct but the exact use was to prevent ice during the winter from hitting them. I forgot about ice as the weather at the time of the visit was pretty warm.

Almost at the end of the bridge on the Old Town side we saw this man prostrating himself on the bridge's floor with a paper cup in the grip of his two hands. With such an able body, I don't know if there is anybody who will take pity and donate money for his next meal. What a way to beg for money.

This is the tower on the Old Town side.

After reaching the Old Town Square, Veronica briefed us on The Astronomical Clock. The clock was installed in 1410 and is the third oldest astronomical clock in the world but the oldest one still working. The Orloj as it is named is mounted on the southern wall ofOld TownCity Hall in theOld Town Square. Since it was still quite awhile before 4 PM when we would be witnessing it's chiming and the show of moving figures on the clock, Veronica asked us to take our own time and come back at 4 Pm to witness the event and afterwards she will take us for a another walking tour.

Upon entering a side street my wife saw these stalls selling souvenirs. She had found paradise! We bought a replica of the astronomical clock.

We forgot the 4 PM appointment with veronica and decided to spend more time shopping. Later we met many others who decided not to go on playing tourist and head hone for the hotel instead. With the Old Town Square being just next to Wenceslas Square, we know we are not far from home.

Seeing other tourists riding horse carriages or riding antique cars like the one below made me feel like doing the same to get back to the hotel with the tired feet not willing to go on walking the fairly short distance back to the hotel.

The road tax sticker sticked on the windshield and refused to be off after one year... I really got pissed when need to tear this bit by bit. I spent 1/2 hours to peel the sticker out from the windshield, unfortunately could not peel off all those sticky sticker, i have no choice to leave some unpeel sticker on the windshield and stick the new one on top...

I'm still remember the first year when they introduced this sticker... the following year was so easy to peel off but now year over year... It's getting tougher and tougher to peel out the old road tax. Now i understand why some people just stick besides the old road tax. Difficult to take out...

I'm not sure how do you feel about the Road Tax sticker quality... but for me, I feel the quality has degraded year over year. Why? maybe the cost has gone up and our lovely Transportation Ministry is paying peanut to the manufacturer. As a result, the manufacturer has no choice but to cut cost and provide the 2nd or 3rd grade quality sticker instead... Is this the real situation?

Anyway, will see what would happen for the current new road tax... Am i having the same problem or worst next year? Let's monitor for another year :p

YANGON, June 4 – Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a passenger bus and killed nine Muslims, police said today, the deadliest communal violence in the tense region since a reformist government took power a year ago.

The bus was besieged near Taunggoke town in the western state of Rakhine yesterday evening by a group who blamed some of its passengers for the murder of a Buddhist woman a week ago, said local residents and politicians. One of those killed was travelling in a separate car.

Rakhine is home to Myanmar's largest concentration of Muslims, but their presence is often resented by the Buddhist majority. The resentment is particularly sharp for Rohingya Muslims, whose roots date back to the 1820s when they were brought to the country as labourers by colonial power Britain.

Ko Kyaw Lay, a local Muslim and a human rights activist who belongs to an opposition party, said none of those killed were Rohingyas.

Police could not immediately confirm all of the details.

"An investigation is underway but I can't give you any further details," said a police official, who requested anonymity.

In a separate incident yesterday in Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, 10 people were shot and wounded when riot police tried to break up a protest, witnesses said. They said the rally by some 200 people was unrelated to the attack on the bus.

Protesters threw rocks at police, who responded by firing into the air and a 13-year-old novice monk was among those wounded, the witnesses said.

Myanmar is one of Southeast Asia's most ethnically diverse countries, where sectarian and ethnic tensions still persist, despite a new political climate and broad reforms by a civilian-led government that says it has made peace and national unity a priority since it replaced a military junta 15 months ago.

In the case of the bus attack, Taunggoke resident Kyaw Min said the Buddhists "were angered by the authorities' handling" of an attack on a woman who locals say was raped by several men and then killed. Just before Sunday's attack, leaflets bearing a photo of the woman and describing the rape were distributed in the area.

Several residents, who asked for their names to not be disclosed, said the Muslims on the bus were not local and were on a visit to Rakhine state. They suggested those killed may not have been the perpetrators of the alleged gang rape and murder.

Residents were also on edge after the Sittwe demonstration. Shopkeeper Thein Kyaw said the protest erupted outside a police station after hired thugs attacked and detained local business operators who refused to pay over-inflated taxes.

Demonstrations were extremely rare under Myanmar's former military rulers but are becoming more frequent as the public voices discontent over issues such as land ownership and chronic power shortages, which led to peaceful marches by hundreds of people in several towns and cities last month.

Legalisation of public protests is among reforms implemented by President Thein Sein, a former junta general.

But the speedy moves to liberalise are a test of security forces' tolerance of dissent in the former Burma. The changing political landscape has also seen Internet and media censorship significantly reduced.

Hla Saw, Secretary General of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, blamed the local government for "mismanagement" of the tax issue and said his party was due to meet state officials to try to resolve the conflict. – Reuters

Nizar, who will give a statement to Johor police on Wednesday over his tweet, is facing mounting protest and criticism from the Malays, especially in Johor and will be investigated under the Sedition Act.